PUTRAJAYA: Think of a sizzling hot day and the thirst-quenching image of cold sugarcane juice pops into your head but with prices sky high, alas, but a government pensioner is glad to eke out a humble living by selling the drink at a generous price of RM4 for a jug and RM8 for a 1.5 litre bottle.
Rahmah price, he calls it. Compared to other hawkers dangling it for RM14 to RM15 per 1.5 litre bottle and between RM7-RM8 for a jug, the sugar cane juice from 69 year-old Adrus Wahab, or more affectionately known as ‘Ham’, comes half as cheap ... because he grows his own crop.
Yes, you heard right. Adrus introduced the 1.5 litre bottle in conjunction with Ramadan this year out of pure consideration for the plight of those parched souls who adore sugarcane juice but can’t really afford it, especially the large families with many mouths to feed and to splurge RM15 on a single bottle of sugarcane.
"Looking at the current situation (high cost of living) and I myself coming from a poor family, the public is craving for sugarcane juice but can't afford it. With one jug at a steep RM8, what if there are three to four children, is one bottle enough? So people can only gawk at the stall, but cannot taste," the grinning entrepreneur told Bernama at his stall in Kampung Jenderam Hilir here.
Ham said he took serious note of the despair in daily living as he once spied on a cake trader who would not part with hard-earned cash to buy his child a packet of sugar cane juice because it is too costly.
"I don’t follow other hawkers’ pricing, I think of human frailty. I stick to (the proverb of) ‘life is not because of promises, death not because of oaths’ (‘life and death is fated’),” he declares.
When he started out selling sugarcane juice only five years ago, Ham was helped by his four children to sell ‘Rahmah sugarcane juice’ online through social media until he managed to open his own stall.
True to the saying, ‘sustenance never goes to the wrong address’ (’good fortune never knocks on the wrong door’) his Rahmah sugarcane juice sold like hot cakes, not only among local residents but soon its fame spread far and wide to Kedah and Terengganu.
He admitted being extremely busy during the hot season when crowds make a beeline for his sugarcane stall to cool off.
When Ham first planted his own sugar cane crop, none too soon at 52, he only sold the raw produce of the fibrous stalk to money-minded buyers who only cared for the lowest of prices.
"The capital (for planting) is high, for example fertiliser costs RM140 for 25 kg compared to previously RM120 for 50kg and even the cheapest herbicide costs RM80. I felt it was unrewarding when buyers overlook the hard work and toil of small cane farmers and only wanted to buy it cheap. So I figured it out in a discussion with my children, that I might as well sell sugarcane juice myself,” he recalled.
It’s no easy task from planting to harvesting it for the juice, as every day Ham is hacking away at 8 am for 100 stalks of sugarcane from his garden near the house until sunset before he can open his stall.
He said 100 fresh sugar cane stalks are cut from his orchard which translates into a day of selling 40 1.5-litre bottles while he can push more than 60 bottles on Sundays.
Ham said that even though it was a tedious assembly line from raising cane until it reached the cash till, he made sure of the purity and freshness of his sugarcane and emphasised hygiene because sugarcane not stored properly will be invaded by pests like mice or ‘siput babi’ (Giant African land snail).
After the hassle of slashing, he will bundle the sugarcane to his stall for the process of removing the hard outer skin, washing it before squeezing the life out of the stalks in a roller machine, with no water added, and filtering the sugarcane juice twice so it won’t be cloudy and lasts longer.
Ham said if you want a fatter bottom line, buy plastic bags at RM9 for 1,000 pieces to package the juice for customers, but he’d rather pay 48 sen for the cost of one plastic bottle to guarantee satisfaction when a customer carries his fresh sugar cane juice before taking a-aah live-saving gulp.- Bernama
